Late Friday night there were three serious fires in Ottawa that gutted a
number of commercial buildings. One of them was at my nephew's video
store. The fire started in a hair salon and spa upstairs but his shop
was totally destroyed. What didn't burn was damaged by smoke and water.
It was arson.

This came at an especially hard time for my nephew and his wife. She had
just quit a good paying job to work full time in the store. Luckily,
they had insurance and are planning to re-open, but it will be a few
months before they can open up again. They haven't even been able to get
into the building to see how bad things are.

Early the next morning, Ottawa police were called to a disturbance at a
hotel in the city hotel and arrested 5 men. One of them had serious
burns to 90% of his body. At least two of them have now been charged
with arson.